ARTIST & WRITER TO KNOW: JADA-AMINA
JADA-AMINA
Jada-Amina is a South Side Chicago born and based, Black Indigenous American writer, interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, cultural worker and musician. Their work is deeply committed to protecting Black children, women, of trans and queer Black life and ensuring they feel seen and heard.
Portrait Of Jada-amina, Florida, USA
SHEER: You mentioned that though you grew up around artistically inclined people, you never viewed them as artists. Could you expand upon this? Would you consider yourself an artist?
JADA-AMINA: I come from alchemists. I believe that Black people are alchemists and know that I am and always have been trying to be of that practice and tradition. My people are cooks, earth workers, painters, pianists, preachers, potters and poets, singers, seamstress, midwives, carpenters, field hands and much more.
I grew up thinking this is what we do. I think I come from people who were, who are, alchemists because they had to be. They had to make a way to survive in this world.
I make [art] because I’m trying to get free. I make my own worlds because I’m not satisfied with this one. I think my elders were making a way. Transforming the matter in reach. Making something beautiful, new and sustainable out of the worlds they got. At the heart of it all, that’s what I’m trying to do. We are one in the same.
SHEER: What do you mean when you say that you, “Use gospel as a compass for living.” How is music, specifically gospel, a way of navigating life for you?
JA: My grandparents have both respectively been in gospel music groups and even together as The Haney Supremes, a trio that they formed with my mom when she was young.
Better known, is The Kingdom Bound Singers, a group my grandfather founded alongside a few of his brothers and play cousins.
My familial and personal history is inextricable from gospel. It has always been heavy in my consciousness.
In coming into my own identity I have had to reclaim gospel for myself. I have found myself lost and gospel has given me a way to navigate the madness of it all.
Gospel [music] is a promise. It offers direction and possibility. Gospel is the North Star, a Black American spellwork and instruction on how to persevere in a world meant to conquer you. Hymns are incantations, speaking of defiance and triumph in this world. To have gospel is to have faith in a faithless world. That's all I ever hope to do.
“I make [art] because I’m trying to get free. I make my own worlds because I’m not satisfied with this one. I think my elders were making a way. Transforming the matter in reach. Making something beautiful, new and sustainable out of the worlds they got. At the heart of it all, that’s what I’m trying to do. We are one in the same. ”
The Kingdom Bound Singers- I Had A Dream
SHEER: How does your work combat the archival erasure experienced by Black communities? Overall, how does your work engage with the past, present and future?
JA: I really don’t know if my work actually does that. I know that I make in response to that violence- be it erasure in the archive, in the headline, in the home, in the cultural theft. Black is most certainly the past, the present and the future. It is always and always been. That’s all I’m ever trying to say.
SHEER: “I’m Not Going To Die, I’m Going Home Like a Shooting Star,” is an experimental film of yours that explores themes of Black ancestry and futurity, motherhood, Queerness, and liberation. Could you share a bit more about this piece and how it meets at the intersection of your work?
JA: It is my testimony and part of my life’s work. It is talking about all that. What you saw was what I called an experimental edit. Meaning there’s still work to be done there.
I scored, shot and edited it all as part of my senior thesis. I don’t say that because I think it’s cute to work alone but rather because it’s true and speaks to how it shapes as an amalgamation of practices. I’m actually talking to some people about putting their hands on it now.
INGTD meets at the intersection of my sound, video, archival, performance and divination practice. It is a study of my own life, my maternal line, the lives of Black trans, queer folk and [cis] Black women. I’m employing the archive constantly, as to say “seeeee”. That’s what being a Black girl was for me. Being constantly gaslit by everybody and they mama. That is to be Black and marginalized by gender, sexuality, disability, class, complexion is. It is really so exhausting.
I am so grateful for the document, the record, and the counter archive especially. It assists in making rebuttals to the psychological manipulation this world imposes on the Black marginalized subject.
The (counter) archive really be like “here’s the receipts''.
I’m championing us, and for sure championing myself in this film. I have to be a defender of Black life, I don’t know how not to be. That’s not everybody's ministry but it’s mine. To be a defender of Black children, women, of trans and queer Black life.
Those of us who are being perpetually disenfranchised and gaslit. It’s a fight and INGTD is my personal battleground for the collective to feel and see. More on that when the film is released to the public again.
Trailer for experimental edit of I'm Not Going tO Die, I'm Going home like a shooting star
“I’m championing us, and for sure championing myself in this film. I have to be a defender of Black life, I don’t know how not to be. That’s not everybody’s ministry but it’s mine. To be a defender of Black children, women, of trans and queer Black life.”
SHEER: What do you hope people take away from your work?
JA: I do this work cus I honestly think I would die of heartbreak if I didn’t. I’m not going to hold you. I’m a deep feeler and my work is a place to put the rage, my fear and my tenderness. I got a lot to give. I hope people feel it. I definitely want to be understood but I think that’s too ambitious and perhaps not even the point. Most of all, I hope people feel seen, maybe even held by my work. That’s what gospel and good films and good food do for me. I’m just trying to share some of that feeling, you know?
SHEER: You’ve worked with visual art, film, and music. Do you have a preferred medium? What do you feel is the benefit of each?
JA: Music is innate for me. I can hop on a beat and make a song like *dat.* I come from a long line of sound makers – Opera, Punk, Gospel Quartet, Choir, Hip Hop; those sounds raised me. But you know I really love it all, whatever holds me in the moment. I like to cook for loved ones too! That does a lot for me. In short, I like to care; I care a lot. I’m a Sagittarius. DMX and I have the same birthday. I think that says a lot. That brotha felt deeply. Ryde In Power X!
SHEER: What are you currently working on?
JA: A few things. I released a single back in March called, gudgud. It was my first release on streaming platforms and I was really blessed by the response it got, I am currently in production for the visual. I'm working with some wonderful folks to make that happen. So that’ll be here soon.
My EP is in the works and I hope to have that out by 2022. I’m doing some writing, reading and listening. Applying for grants always. Lots of collaborating. Doing a lot of feeling. Doing my best to show up for myself.
“I do this work cus I honestly think I would die of heartbreak if I didn’t. I’m not going to hold you. I’m a deep feeler and my work is a place to put the rage, my fear and my tenderness. I got a lot to give. I hope people feel it. I definitely want to be understood but I think that’s too ambitious and perhaps not even the point. Most of all, I hope people feel seen, maybe even held by my work. That’s what gospel and good films and good food do for me. I’m just trying to share some of that feeling, you know? ”
SHEER: What is a piece of advice you’d give to aspiring artists?
JA: Give your art your everything. No one can ever do for you like your art can do for you. Find a gospel, a compass and make a way for yourself. Not everybody will see it for you. Complete the work anyhow.